


Thorns

by Neroavan



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Established Relationship, Iwaoi Horror Week 2017, M/M, Self-Harm, Vines, thorns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 04:27:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12522956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neroavan/pseuds/Neroavan
Summary: Oikawa was the only one able to see them.





	Thorns

Oikawa was the only one able to see them.

He couldn’t forget on how he merely brushed them off as an illusion, as his mother said she couldn’t see them.

He merely brushed them off as a trick of mind and senses, even though he could perfectly see the blood trickling in thin, dark red lines from his knee down his leg and feel the prickling pain.

Everytime he woke up, he would always see them, coating the spot on his bed in red. It also ripped part of his sheets and blankets.

However, his mother said there wasn’t anything strange with the appearance of his leg, nor were there any rips in his sheets and blankets. She only noticed the strange way Oikawa would walk in the morning.

“Tooru, I think you should go to a therapist,” she said.

Oikawa looked at her, a bit dumbfounded. Perhaps he had been so obsessed with the topic of the thorny vines that were wrapping themselves around his leg, that his mother had noticed and worried more than he wanted?

“No Mom, they’re gone now. I just need to get used to them being gone,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile.

She didn’t seem convinced. Oikawa sighed and left for school, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She still had the small frown on her face.

Oikawa hoped she didn’t realize they got _worse_ , instead.

He contemplated on how it seemed to be connected with his knee injury.

They first appeared around two years ago. He noticed them while showering after a particularly hard day of training. Oikawa stayed back for extra, with Iwaizumi hanging around to make sure Oikawa _actually_ gets home.

The first time Oikawa had seen them, he had never been more terrified in his life.

He fell to the floor, screaming in horror as he saw them slowly grow out of his knee in small sprouts, fed by the water. Iwaizumi immediately rushed to the shower room and banged on the stall door frantically.

“Oikawa! Oikawa!” he yelled, trying to make his voice heard through Oikawa’s wails. “Let me in! Oikawa!”

It took Oikawa a while to gather the courage to open the door, one that remained close despite Iwaizumi’s efforts to break it down.

Iwaizumi wrapped Oikawa into a hug, kissing his forehead and whispering he would be okay. Oikawa clutched onto him like he was the only one who could save him, sobbing.

“I’ve got you, don’t cry,” said Iwaizumi, voice gentle and soft. He rubbed circles on Oikawa’s back. He embraced him tightly, and asked what was wrong.

“I-Iwa-chan,” said Oikawa between sniffles, “they suddenly sprouted from my knee!” He pointed at said knee, which in his view, was coated in tiny little sprouts with spikes. Oikawa didn’t touch them in fear of injuring himself further, or making them grow even more.

Iwaizumi was silent for a moment. Oikawa looked at him with desperate eyes, wishing that Iwaizumi could do something about the thorns. Iwaizumi always helped him. Iwaizumi would help him again this time.

“Oikawa, what are you pointing at?”

 

* * *

 

After that, Iwaizumi would ask Oikawa once in a while about his knee.

Oikawa said he was fine. While he was glad Iwaizumi worried about him, he didn’t want to see Iwaizumi worrying all the time. If Oikawa told him everything, Iwaizumi might die of worry.

Besides the thorns didn’t really affect his life that much. They were just… there. Like some kind of decoration or such — they weren’t doing any harm.

Oikawa’s behavior changed a bit when they appeared. He took extra care in covering his knee, even though Iwaizumi and his mother told him they couldn’t see anything.

He wanted to make sure nobody would see them.

He secured the knee pad around his left knee, feeling a little bit tight with the illusory thorns digging into his skin and drawing some blood.

The knee pad was black. If the blood was real, it wouldn’t be obvious.

Everytime he jumped, the thorns would prick his skin and induce some prickling pain.

“Is everything alright?” said Coach Mizoguchi.

Oikawa’s head turned sharply to him, surprised. He was focusing on his knee after he thought he saw blood when he landed from the jump.

“Y-Yeah, everything’s alright,” said Oikawa after a short pause, with a forced smile.

Mizoguchi raised an eyebrow, frowning slightly. “If you’re not feeling well then go home. It’s good you’re earnest about your training but remember to take care of yourself.”

He left, walking to Coach Irihata. Oikawa bit his lip. Mizoguchi was definitely going to have Irihata make Oikawa go home. Oikawa didn’t want that.

He ran towards Mizoguchi, but he felt a sharp pain from his knee and had to stop.

His knee was covered in blood, and to Oikawa’s horror, the more it bled, the more the thorny vines grew. He let out a shriek, clawing at the knee pad to try remove it, and injured his hands.

His hands were a bloody mess, and they were so painful too, but Oikawa was more worried about his knee.

His hands could heal from cuts. His knee wouldn’t be able to heal from being the ‘soil’ of plants.

“Oikawa, calm down. Please calm down,” Oikawa heard Iwaizumi say. “Come here, please.”

Oikawa looked at Iwaizumi with wet eyes, not caring about the other people in the vicinity. He clutched at Iwaizumi, panting.

“Oikawa,” whispered Iwaizumi. “Is this related to the vines you were talking about to me before?”

Oikawa looked up to him. He pressed his lips into a straight line, before saying, “Yes."

 

* * *

 

Oikawa was sent home by the coaches, both too worried for his being. Iwaizumi covered up about Oikawa’s knee, saying that he probably got injured.

Unfortunately, when Coach Irihata checked Oikawa’s knee, it was _indeed_ injured.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?!” said Mizoguchi. “You should think of yourself first before the team!”

“I didn’t know it’s that bad!” said Oikawa. “I didn’t know! I swear!”

“It’s still in its early stages,” said Coach Irihata. “However, I want you to rest. I want you to lessen your amount of practice. It’s important you don’t make it worse.”

“But—!”

“No buts, Shittykawa. You’re not going to overwork and injure yourself even more,” said Iwaizumi. “I’m making sure you get home. Coach, is it okay if I leave early today?”

“Okay. Just make sure he doesn’t do anything harmful,” said Coach Irihata.

“Then let’s go. Hanging around will just make you want to practice,” said Iwaizumi. Oikawa took Iwaizumi’s outstretched hand.

Oikawa got light pats on his shoulders, courtesy of Hanamaki and Matsukawa. “Take care of yourself, captain. It’s less fun without you.”

Oikawa wanted them to prevent him from going home, for them to tell him he was needed, but it didn’t seem so. He didn’t feel any better, despite the kind smiles the two were giving him.

He wanted them to stop Iwaizumi. He wanted to stay in the place he believed he truly belonged to.

Iwaizumi tugged Oikawa’s arm lightly. “We have to shower unless we want to go home all sticky and hot. You know that.”

“Yeah…”

Oikawa stayed in the shower longer than normal, basking in the scorching hot water. Maybe it’d kill the vines.

Iwaizumi finished showering in record time. Oikawa could hear his hasty footsteps going out of the room, then returning about a minute or two later. They stopped right in front of Oikawa’s stall.

“Tooru, you know… you can tell me anything,” said Iwaizumi softly. It was the same tone he used when Oikawa first saw the vines on his knee.

Oikawa didn’t really want to tell him, but a part of him nagged that he should let Iwaizumi know. Perhaps Iwaizumi would be able to help him, like usual. Iwaizumi knew it was hard to have an injury at such a crucial point in their lives. Oikawa’s mother might sympathize with her son, but she would never know how it could feel like.

A long pause. Oikawa didn’t know what to say.

“Let me finish showering first,” said Oikawa, breathing in deeply and closing his eyes. He waited for Iwaizumi’s answer.

“Okay.”

 

* * *

 

Oikawa took a step with his left leg. Prickling pain surged from his knee. He was sure he felt some blood trickle down. It was warm. And scary in a way.

“Why are you doing that,” said Iwaizumi, stopping in his tracks.

Oikawa lifted his pant leg up. “What can you see?”

Iwaizumi scrunched his eyebrows. Oikawa knew immediately that Iwaizumi couldn’t see the vines.

Iwaizumi hesitated.

“Tell me the truth, Hajime.”

“I still can’t see anything but your knee.”

Oikawa grimaced. If Iwaizumi said so, then it _had_ to be Oikawa’s hallucination. He stopped calling them ‘visions’, since he could feel the pain they cause every time he tried to move his knee.

“I see thorny vines wrapped around my knee,” said Oikawa, direct to the point. He heard Iwaizumi stutter, and continued, “I see them prick the skin and the blood leaking from them.”

He looked at Iwaizumi, who was staring at the ground with wide eyes, making choking sounds.

He faced forward once more, looking at the road ahead of them. “I’d wake up in the morning and see my sheets and blankets ripped, covered in blood stains.”

Iwaizumi turned to him sharply, mouth slightly agape as if he wanted to say something, yet the words wouldn’t come out.

“Keep this from Mom, ‘kay? She worries way too much already,” said Oikawa, serious. He faced Iwaizumi with all the resolution he could muster. “Keep this a secret. Promise me that.”

Iwaizumi looked torn at the choices Oikawa was offering him. If Iwaizumi promised Oikawa not to tell, then it would mean Iwaizumi would be forced to carry the burden of the secret by himself — Oikawa would never tell anyone if he wanted to keep something secret, so only Iwaizumi would be in trouble. If Iwaizumi told anyone, he’d lose Oikawa.

Oikawa knew he was being unfair, taking advantage of Iwaizumi’s love for him.

Oikawa inhaled deeply, and said, “If you don’t want—”

“I promise,” said Iwaizumi in a shaky voice. Oikawa was taken aback by Iwaizumi’s wet eyes. “In turn, promise you’ll tell me _everything_.”

Oikawa leaned forward, carressing Iwaizumi’s cheek with his hand. He wiped away the tear that fell from Iwaizumi’s eye. “Why are you crying, Hajime?”

Iwaizumi bit his lip, slapping Oikawa’s hand away and wiping his own tears himself. “I’ve known you from the moment you were born, I’ve been with you my whole life, I’ve been loving you for a long time already, yet I never noticed what you’re going through. What kind of lover am I?”

Oikawa’s formerly blank face softened. “Don’t blame yourself for this. I don’t blame you for my condition.”

Iwaizumi swallowed thickly.

“You… tell me everything now.”

 

* * *

 

Oikawa indeed told him everything that day. From the what he hid from Iwaizumi the first day, to the increasing pain he had been feeling. Iwaizumi was also shocked about how connected the hallucinations were to Oikawa’s worsening injury.

Oikawa couldn’t stop himself from practicing more than he should.

He desperately wanted to beat Ushiwaka.

Ushiwaka caused all of this.

Ushiwaka caused his injury.

“You’re thinking about how Ushiwaka’s the reason for all this, aren’t you Shittykawa,” said Iwaizumi, throwing a water bottle at Oikawa.

Oikawa gulped down the contents, emptying it. He scowled. “If Ushiwaka never existed, then I’d never need to be so fucking obsessed with winning for once.”

“I feel the same. But while I hate the guy too, he didn’t really do anything to your knee directly.”

Oikawa prepared himself for another serve, breathing in deeply and spinning the ball.

He ran up, and jumped.

His hand didn’t make contact with the ball.

Jolts of pain shot up his leg. Oikawa lost his concentration and screamed in pain as he fell down badly.

“Hey, hey, Oikawa?! What happened?” said Hanamaki, frantically rushing to Oikawa’s side.

Iwaizumi quickly did the same, cradling Oikawa’s head. Oikawa clawed at Iwaizumi’s arm. The pain was too much, _unbearable_.

Oikawa fucked up.

“Oikawa! Now you’ve gone and done it!” shouted Mizoguchi as he checked Oikawa’s knee. “Your knee’s in bad shape! You fucking dislocated it now!”

Oikawa didn’t need to hear that. He could see the vines forcefully moving his knee out of place.

As if the copious amounts of blood pooling around him wasn’t enough.

He could feel Iwaizumi’s hold on him tightening, maybe because of what the coaches were saying. Oikawa didn’t really know. He wasn’t paying attention.

The sight of the vines slowly wrapping around his leg was sickening enough. The blood was dark red, staining the fresh green vines. There wasn’t any skin left covering Oikawa’s knee — he knew it from the feeling of raw pain caused by skin peeled off his knee. The vines peeled it off in his sleep, it seemed.

The sight of his knee was truly sickening.

Oikawa threw up right there in the gym.

 

* * *

 

“Tooru, this is our last year. Don’t do anything you’d regret,” said Iwaizumi as he gazed around Sendai Gymnasium. “Please, don’t overwork this year. We need you.”

A small smile crept its way to Oikawa’s lips.

He was needed.

Good.

“I won’t. I want to stand on the court until the end.”

 

* * *

 

Talent is something you make bloom. Instinct is something you polish.

Those were the words running through Oikawa’s head as he returned to prepare for the receive in case the spike got past the blockers.

The agonizing pain in his knee surged the moment he landed on it, but Oikawa wanted to _win_.

Enough to forget about everything.

But then, he wasn’t able to receive the ball properly. The one touch of the blockers had changed it’s course.

Aoba Jousai lost to Karasuno.

It was all over.

 

* * *

 

“Thank you for these three years!” said Oikawa with watery eyes and snot dripping down his nose to his fellow third years.

 _Thank you for believing in me_.

After eating ramen, they went their separate ways, except Oikawa and Iwaizumi. They walked back together to Oikawa’s home.

Oikawa’s chest swelled with pride when Iwaizumi said he was a partner he could be proud of.

He was glad he was able to be that.

“So, I’d be bathing first then,” said Iwaizumi.

“Yeah, go ahead, Iwa-chan,” said Oikawa, grinning.

Oikawa returned to look at the sorry state his leg was in right now. A state not worthy to be part of person somebody was proud of.

The lower part was completely covered in vines, the thorns being the largest ever. A very large thorn had literally replaced the ball in Oikawa’s knee.

It was sickening. He lost his knee already.

It was too sickening for him. It had been three years, and Oikawa thought they would wither away during those years but _no_ , they just grew worse and worse.

Oikawa had already lost what was important to him, so it was time to get rid of it.

He would lose nothing. The thorn was useless. It didn’t belong to Oikawa’s body.

The pain was immense, but Oikawa’s determination to get rid of it outweighed it. He went down to the basement where his father kept tools.

He pulled out a particularly fine saw.

One that was definitely going to cut through hard plant stems that shouldn’t be biologically possible for vines.

He placed the sharp side over the end of the upper part of his leg, where the thorn met skin.

He severed the thorn and the extending vines.

Oikawa laughed.

He now felt nothing.

No pain!

He laughed even more.

He clutched the severed thorn with his two hands, his nails trying to dig into the bark.

He was so so happy it was gone and he would be okay again and he would no longer feel pain again—

“ _Tooru! What have you done?!_ ” shrieked Iwaizumi.

“Huh? What did I do Iwa-chan?” said Oikawa. He smiled. “Look, I finally got rid of the…”

When Oikawa finally looked at what he was holding, a hallucination no longer covered it.

The bloody lower part of the leg together with the knee joint was still warm in his hands.

Oikawa looked at in horror. He glanced quickly at his left leg, hoping to see it still intact and know that the leg he was holding was merely an illusion.

It wasn’t.

Instead of a complete leg, what remained was a bloody stump formed after a rugged cut with a saw, with the bone’s form still visible despite the coat of red blood.

Oikawa fainted.

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5: Talent is something you make bloom
> 
> Is this even qualified to be horror?
> 
> Feedback is appreciated, so let me know what you think.
> 
> \---
> 
> I'm [neroavan](https://neroavan.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.


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